Feature: Chinese publishing houses attract many visitors at Cuba int'l book fair

HAVANA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- At the on-going 2017 Cuba International Book Fair (FIL), the Chinese pavilion has been attracting many locals and foreigners, and has become one of the most-visited areas.

Many visitors showed their interest in books of traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, politics, history and culture. The Chinese pavilion is made up of six major publishing houses with books on various topics.

"Since I was a little boy, I've been very interested in Chinese culture and that's why I came to this stand. To my surprise, I was given a Chinese-Spanish dictionary as a gift," Ernesto Vergara, a medical student, told Xinhua.

Vergara visited the Chinese stands, with his friends Javier Ramirez and Daniel Perdomo, to appreciate over 400 different kinds of books brought to Havana by renowned Chinese publishing houses.

"I'm really surprised that our culture and political figures have reached Chinese audiences. There's even a biography of Fidel Castro in Chinese," said Ramirez.

The People's Publishing House is one of the major Chinese publishing houses at the FIL, presenting literary works about the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, as well as Castro's Chinese-language biography.

"This is our first time at a Cuban book fair and our publishing house has brought over 100 kinds of books. Most of them have already been sold because we underestimated the Cuban readers' passion for books," Ren Chao, Executive Vice-President of the People's Publishing House, told Xinhua.

Ren said that visitors to their stand were particularly interested in texts on governance, party discipline, China's economic and political development.

One of the most in-demand books is "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" by the Chinese President, Ren said.

"These books can help Cuban readers understand how China has come all the way along its path of socialist construction, reform and opening-up," he added.

The book fair attracted many visitors and "such a good reading environment has touched every member of our delegation," added Ren.

Cubans also showed enthusiasm for traditional Chinese medicine, which is growing popular in the Caribbean nation.

"We have brought 40 different traditional Chinese medicine books to the fair, covering acupuncture, the treatment of complicated diseases and so on. They've been widely accepted by the Cuban readers," Ji Fang, assistant chairman of the People's Medical Publishing Group, told Xinhua.

Ji said the FIL is a good platform to promote the understanding between people of the two countries as well as venue to spread knowledge of traditional medicine.

Many of these publishing houses decided to participate in this year's event ahead of the 2018 edition of the FIL, when China will be the guest of honor country.

"As China will be the guest of honor country in 2018, we came here this year for preparation, in a bid to enhance our future cooperation with Cuba. We've been to many international book fairs, but this Cuba book fair is very special," said Yao queue, editor-in-chief of the Literature and Art Press.

The publishing house brought over 100 kinds of books on literature, traditional culture, social science and humanities to Havana, with most of them written in Spanish.

"We feel the Cuban people really love books and in the last few days, the pavilions at the fair have been full of people. It is a delight to establish friendly cooperation with the publishing circle in such a boyloving country," she said.

The FIL runs until Feb. 19 and honored Canada as the guest of honor country.